Help remove this bent door latch assembly

July 29, 2022 11:27 AM

This door latch assembly is bent, and I can't get it removed so that I can replace. Picture in link! Any suggestions?
posted by eggman to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

Shove a screwdriver in the hole in the middle and you can pull on both sides of that, or hit it on both sides to loosen it up. Once you get it to budge, it should come out fairly easily in my experience
posted by walkinginsunshine at 11:41 AM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

A bunch of really tedious annoying fiddly work removing the old assembly with a dremel tool and a stack of cutoff wheels while learning all new cusses the whole time, if nothing else.
posted by Kyol at 11:56 AM on July 29, 2022

I've sawed through metal in similar situations. But it is a pain and sucks
posted by Windopaene at 12:50 PM on July 29, 2022

Crowbar between the back end and the wood.
posted by H21 at 2:43 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The door has already experienced some damage. Are you trying to preserve the door? As the latch assembly is bent, trying to force it out with a prybar or by threading a rod or screwdriver through the part revealed by the hole, and pulling/prying the latch out toward the edge of the door... there's a good possibility of further splintering that door edge. Lots of gentle taps are better in this case than a good hard whack. Sometimes just vibration is what's needed to encourage something to come loose.

If it were me and I was trying to save the door, I think I'd wrap some long pieces of painter's tape around that door edge, above and below where the latch emerges from the door frame, to help minimize further splintering that might occur.
posted by xedrik at 6:29 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

If it's _your_ door, it might be less aggravation to just replace the door.
posted by TimHare at 8:29 PM on July 29, 2022